A book of the Bible with no author attributed written during the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem.
Summary
- 1 - How Lonely Sits the City - Jerusalem is like the great who became a widow, a princess to a slave, someone with lovers but no one to comfort her, her festivals are desolate, and her virgins are afflicted. Jerusalem's sin and nakedness without care for the future made her filthy. Enemy nations reach her precious things, and forbidden people entered the LORD's congregation. People trade their treasure for food. She bears the yoke of her transgressions. The LORD is right for Jerusalem has rebelled. Jerusalem asks Him to judge her foes as He judges her.
- 2 - The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity - The LORD swallowed up Israel and multiplied mourning and lamentation in the daughter of Judah, laying waste to his temple and making Zion forget festival and Sabbath. The anonymous poet's eyes are spent with weeping because babies faint in the streets, crying to their mothers for bread and wine, and their life is poured out on their mothers' bosom. The prophets misled her. Her enemies rejoice. Daughter of Zion, cry out in the night and pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! O LORD, should women eat the fruit of their womb or priests be killed in the sanctuary? The enemy destroyed those whom the anonymous poet held and raised.
- 3 - Great is Your Faithfulness - I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath. The LORD has made him dwell in darkness, shut out his prayers, made his ways crooked, and made his soul bereft of peace. He has hope because the steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, and he is good to those who wait for him for He will not cast off forever. You came near when I called on you; you said, 'Do not fear!' You have seen the wrong done to me and will repay them.
- 4 - The Holy Stones Lie Scattered - The sons of Zion are now so lowly that their people are starving or killed, their white princes are unrecognizably sooty, the prophets and murderous priests are so defiled with blood that they are fugitives and rejected from nations. Zion's punishment is worse than Sodom's instant destruction. Jackals nurse their young, but infants are thirsty, children are hungry, and compassionate women boil their children. They fell, and Edom rejoiced, though they will receive the cup in time. Zion's punishment and exile is over.
- 5 - Restore Us to Yourself, O LORD - Look O Lord at our disgrace - our inheritance is lost to strangers, we are orphans, mothers are widows, water and wood comes at a price, they give the hand to their enemies for bread, and slaves rule. They bear the iniquities of their dead fathers. Women are raped, princes are executed, elders are disrespected, men grind the mill, boys carry wood. Joy and dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen. For this our heart is sick: Mount Zion is desolate, and jackals prowl over it. The LORD reigns forever; His throne endures to all generations. Restore us.
Topics
Peoples
Places
Other
Verses
- Lamentations 2:18-19: Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears stream down like a torrent day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite! Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the night watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street.
- Lamentations 2:20 - Look, O LORD, and see! With whom have you dealt thus? Should women eat the fruit of their womb, the children of their tender care? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Lamentations 3:25-30 - The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone in silence when it is laid on him; let him put his mouth in the dust--there may yet be hope; let him give his cheek to the one who strikes, and let him be filled with insults. For the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.
- Lamentations 3:49-50 - My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the Lord from heaven looks down and sees;
- Lamentations 4:3 - Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young, but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
- Lamentations 4:6 - For the chastisement of the daughter of my people has been greater than the punishment of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, and no hands were wrung for her.
- Lamentations 5:7 - Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.
- Lamentations 5:19 - But you, O LORD, reign forever, your throne endures to all generations.